When Frank Damien became a sheriff in the small town of Santa Barbara, nothing prepared him for a criminal investigation that would bring back the nightmares he thought he left on the streets of New York.The ghastly—but strangely familiar—death of Cleo and Everett Hale has all the making of a muddled affair: a few fragments of circumstantial evidence here and there, involving personalities whose complex mental faculties make tying them to the crime an unenviable proposition.Aside from taking on a seemingly dead-end, thankless mission, Frank engages in an unwise affair with the ex-wife of the deceased, whose son is the prime suspect in the murders. Frank suspects that this investigation has more twists and turns than anyone could have imagined.